WRIGLEYVILLE — Come Saturday, an estimated 14,000 drinkers decked out in Christmas sweaters and cereal crumbs will flood Wrigleyville.
Compared to the turnout at recent celebrations of a certain team's World Series win, the smaller crowd of stumbling holiday revelers participating in the Twelve Bars of Christmas bar crawl might seem like no sweat to keep under control.
"As we've seen with Pride [Parade], with the World Series this year, using additional resources effectively has made a difference," Chicago Police Capt. Paul Kane said Wednesday. "That's our hope with TBOX this weekend."
Police in the Town Hall District have pledged similar resources for the 12-hour bar crawl, although likely not at the level of manpower deployed during the World Series, when Kane said it was possible that up to one-third of the Chicago Police Department was blanketing Wrigleyville.
In addition, TBOX organizers said they have hired another 80 to 100 private security guards from Walsh Security to man the crawl until at least 2 a.m. Sunday.
There will be "zero tolerance" for public drinking, and unruly patrons will lose their wristbands and be booted from the crawl, said Ald. Tom Tunney (44th).
Those with issues or concerns during the event can call the TBOX hotline at 773-478-3378, although 911 should be used for emergencies.
In 2015, a shootout erupted in a Wrigleyville alley seven hours after TBOX ended. Police said the house party that allegedly led to the 78 shots fired near Racine and Patterson was unrelated to TBOX, chalking it up to "bad timing."
Tunney worked with the landlord of the property to evict the tenants in the months following.
Ralph Banks, 19, was charged with using the firearm while on parole for a gun conviction. He remains jailed in lieu of a $350,000 bail — reduced from $1 million — and is expected to return to court Dec. 15.
The bar crawl, now in its 21st year, begins at 8 a.m. and — contrary to its name and the original 12 participating bars — will include stops at more than 40 bars. The crawl itself ends at 8 p.m., but closing ceremonies at the Cubby Bear will take about two hours.
This year's wedding theme will include actual nuptials, although details were unavailable Thursday. Participants will also have a chance to appear on a planned reality television show called "CrawlStars," organizers said.
TBOXers received tokens for three free food or drink items as park of their ticket packages. Many bars will have food and drink specials, like $3 Bud Light drafts, free pizza and $4.50 Cocoa Puffs Nutella, although the free tokens can only be used at some bars and only during restricted hours.
Organizers will set up barricades to keep attendees out of alleys and neighboring streets, Tunney said. There will also be 60 portable toilets, 80 trash cans and a 12-person cleaning crew.
The crawl shrank considerably over the past four years, after rowdy festivities in 2012 ended in a stabbing. Since then, TBOX has capped registration at 20,000 and hired security guards, resulting in a "surprisingly quiet" event.
This year, ticket sales have been somewhat delayed, possibly by a partying "hangover" brought on by the World Series and election, said TBOX spokeswoman Lissa Druss Christman.
Still, the number of participants will likely be on par with last year, she said. The crawl will also use the same system of splitting participants into three zones, spreading them out among the bars in different time slots.
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